August

Mom is back in the hospital. She was not too peppy and when I got home from work Wednesday. She was very uncomfortable, her bad elbow was all swollen and sore. She couldn't move without pain. It had been coming on for a while but really got bad on Wednesday. We didn't want to hurt her trying to get her in car so we called ambulance and she had a comfortable ride to the ER. They admitted her, thank God. She is getting IV antibiotics for her elbow and the everlasting UTI. Tomorrow they are going to lance the small wound in her elbow and squeeze some junk out of there (ewwww), which I think will be good.  Just in the hospital room, not like a big surgery. She was on the regular floor, then last night I got a call about 10:30 and they moved her to Medium ICU, her blood pressure was super low. Not sure what was up with that. She is still in MICU today, they are going to adjust some of her meds. Blood pressure was pretty good all day, then took a dive again when she fell asleep. Poor Jo Ann. She is tough, sometimes too tough I think. I just left there, she was looking forward to meatloaf and mashed taters. Nothing wrong with her appetite, she is enjoying all her meals, she says everything is delicious, so that is a good sign. Her appetite had been declining at home. Unusual for Mom.  She still ate mind you, just not as much as usual. Not sure when she will be discharged, but I'm relieved she is there. She needs to be there right now.

Was sorry the reunion was canceled. Next year!

Tired of the heat wave too.

Was super busy at work with the beginning of school, but that is settling down now too. 

Enjoying tomatoes and zucchini and peppers and flowers from the garden. So are the squirrels and the goldfinch and the hummingbirds, but I am happy to share. The sunflowers picked bare of all their petals amuse me, but not as much as the petals raining down on Finnegan, and he is baffled where they are coming from lol. The goldfinch are incredibly efficient at getting to the seeds. 

I can't believe September is upon us. Time is flying by.

I'm sorry Mom is in hospital, but honestly a break is good. It tires one out, worrying and caring for someone like that. At night you are always listening with half an ear.  We are getting caught up on our sleep. It will do Joe good to have some days off. Plus we can crank the air during this awful heat wave . . . lol. I told mom that and she laughed and said they are cranking the air in the hospital, she is cold. I told her not to expect warmed blankets at home! LOL  But in reality she can have whatever she wants. 

Best to all,

Kay 

Home

Evacuation lifted at 4:00 p.m. today. Whew. It was nice to come home after work and not have to drive 45 minutes to John's house. John was an excellent host! Mom and Joe will be spoiled, but I'll have them back to normal in no time. John is on his way home with Mom, Joe and (hopefully) Finnegan, who had taken a liking to hiding under John's basement stairwell.  They tried a new chicken place over in Streator for supper tonight, Harold's (boo hoo I missed that). I think Mom will be happy to have her cable TV again, same with Joe. I also think John will be very happy to have his quiet, tidy house back! I think his cats will be relieved too, though there wasn't a whole lot of drama. 

I'm on my bed, laptop on belly, enjoying the smell of fresh cut grass. Too bad it is not our grass!

Best to all!

Kay 

Evacuated

Well, the Morris Mallaneys are Streator Mallaneys for a while. We have been evacuated due to the industrial fire down the street from our house. Thankful for John to welcome  us in. Not sure how long we will be displaced. Apparently 180,000 - 200,000 pounds of lithium batteries which were stored in the old Morris Paper Mill property are on fire. It needs to be extinguished with foam. Evac started at 900 block, then 800 block, I came home from work then to get things lined up figuring 700 block would be soon. Now the whole East Side of town is being evacuated.

Poor kitty Finnegan had a rough ride over, hurled and pooped in his carrier . . . ewwww, but he will settle in. John's kitties are upstairs, I'm down in the basement with Finn. The kitties have sniffed each other, but that is it. Then there was a growl and  a hiss big fat tails on the  John's girls due to the strange kitty in their territory ol.  Mom did well, though this will tire her out for sure. John doesn't have cable, so they will have an interesting day tomorrow.  Joe can find interesting things for them to watch on You Tube or something.  I have no one to cover for me at work due to vacations, so I'll be a commuter! LOL  

I was mightily amused when we were heading out. Mom said she needed help getting her pants up? I was ever so surprised to see a big pair of my bloomers falling off her, taking her leggings down too. ! I said Mom, didn't those seem a little big when you were putting them on? LOL I mean I weigh twice as much as Mom! If that is TMI, I don't care, it was hilarious. 

I'm in the basement chilling with Finn, eating pizza and having a beer. Glad to be safe and welcomed at John's lovely home! But I do not want to be here too long . . . lol There is no place like home. 

One more thing . . . I have read of people having go bags, go figure I never thought I would need one. Well, life is strange. Even if I don't have a go bag, I think I need a go list. I got mom's meds and her personal items and clothes, and cash, etc. and Finn's food and bed. But I forgot work clothes! LOL  Luckily I do laundry right here at Johns, whew. They recommended turning off AC with the toxic smoke, so I worked up a sweat bustling around getting things packed up otherwise I'd have no problem re-wearing them.

Best to all.

Streator Kay

Father's Day

Thinking about Bernie today. He would never move the cats so he could read the paper. He'd just wait for them to decide to move. He would say he didn't want the cats to get mad at him. LOL Cracked me up. Quite a change from Bernie's farmer attitude about cats back in the day!

John put some flowers at the Seneca Cemetery. Bernie would like that. John likes to park at the top and walk down. No ditch jumping like Bernie.  John came home for my 59th birthday (ugh) and a visit with Mom, and brought a delicious carrot cake. We went out and about and ate inside at Portillos, yum.  Thank you John. He will be celebrating his 55th next month. Old. Old. How come my hair is going white and John's is going black!? Weirdness. 

Mom is hanging in there. No great improvements. It is much like before except she doesn't have that mass in her colon now. The visiting nurse thinks she has a UTI (AGAIN!), and we are waiting to hear, hopefully tomorrow. I'll be sad when the nurse stops coming. She sure gets things done and it is hard to get mom out, so Carol taking blood, specimens at the house is a true blessing.  Same old same old. I'm hoping she'll get some meds for UTI, and then get put on a low dose regimen to help prevent them. I'm hoping for some improvement in her energy and strength then. Fingers crossed. She still has a good appetite. Like mother like daughter lol.  

Finnegan was under the weather, so had him out to the vet. Something else to worry about. Couple of hundred bucks later and an antibiotic shot, and he seems to be feeling better. Whew. My vet's mother and mom shared a room at rehab during her last stint.He has since lost his mother, a sweet lady. 

I'm glad Covid restrictions have loosened up. I've been getting out more. Last week I went with a friend to the Whistle Stop in Diamond and had a delicious garlicky hoagie and 3 beers. OMG. I slept like a baby and was a zombie at work the next day. I was home by like 8:30 too.  It was a bad day. Everything I touched broke or malfunctioned and my brain was unable to process anything complicated. Like words. Friday night I got together with some old high school/softball friends and an enormous yawn about split my jaw at 9:00 p.m. I was reminded that I used to leave the house voluntarily to play 9:00 and 9:30 softball games out of town that sometimes didn't start until 10:00 and sometimes the temperature was 100 degrees. And oh yes, I used to drink copious amounts of beer before and after said games. Ugh. Oh the memories. It was too hot to sit outside and drink a beer the other night.  I now have a 9:00 self imposed curfew, at least on work nights. And some nights I am fighting to stay awake until it gets dark. That is Kay at 59. Oh boy. 

Have a good week all. Can't help but think on this Father's Day how lucky the family was with such wonderful fathers and uncles. Good people good memories.

Kay ☘

Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day!

I did Mom's side of the fam yesterday, John will hit Seneca next time he comes home. That hill scares me. What a way to go!

Mom is settling in. Hopefully her at-home therapy will help. She is still very weak and tired. I don't know what I expected at rehab, but an 84 year old woman who had a cancerous mass removed and had staples in her for over half the time at rehab . . . and who had been  bed bound for months before that, well clearly my expectations were ridiculous. Hopefully her at home therapy will help. Her blood pressure is low, the nurse is trying to line up some blood work and then we will evaluate with her GP. Her appetite is good. I'm glad we got the hospital bed. It makes things easier on everybody. Except Mom and Joe can't really work it. I find mother in interesting positions sometimes. I'm sure they'll get the hang of it eventually. LOL I don't get what is so hard about the up and down arrows, but like John says, everybody needs some way to pass the time. Just like the TV remote, mom likes to work it upside down. Oh well. 

The bath aide came today, a lovely, sweet girl. But Kathleen can only take so much of that. She called and said she was at the front door but nobody was answering. We really should get a doorbell. Anyway she says "I'm running a little early, I'm here but no one is answering." I said well, we were expecting you at 2:00, but come on in! LOL I mean it was 12:30!  She told me she meant to schedule us at 1:00, but she is running ahead. OK. Fine. She comes in mom's room, mom is dozing, and she asks how she is doing, is she tired today? I told the aide Mom ate a good dinner (I made pot roast, we always eat early on Sundays), and the aide says "Oh good! She had a good meal when I was here Friday too, I found a tomato in her bed." OMG What must she think!? LOL I got the giggles over that one.  Then I left to go drink a couple beers at my friends' house. I don't know what happens here when I'm at work, but whatever! Mom and Joe get along just fine.  LOL She has OT, PT and bath aide this week. That is the busiest schedule any Morris Mallaney has had for a long time.

I went and sat and drank a few beers with my friend yesterday afternoon on her front porch, had a few beers with another couple this afternoon, good friends, and having lunch with another friend tomorrow at the park. Praise be, covid social isolation sucks! I'm glad things are starting to get back to normal. On the plus side I only need 2 beers and I'm done! Yikes. I remember Mom and Dad sitting on the front porch at the farm, and thinking how boring it was. I'd love to sit on a front porch with them now!

I got new license plates, and went out to try to change them. OMG I couldn't budge the screws. I mentioned it to the maintenance guy at work, and he sprayed some razzle dazzle stuff on there to loosen up the screws, and got one out, they were stripped and rusty and a mess, but then the other one broke off. He was kind enough to drill it out for me and find new screws and put on the new plate for me. Its too bad the new plate came with the sticker on or I would have stuck it on the old plate. It ended up being a pain in the ass. Not for me really, but for him. But anyways if you have an older vehicle (mine is a 2010, and I can't remember the last time I got new plates), do yourself a favor and give your bolts or screws or whatever they are a turn when you put on your new sticker. Save yourself (or a kindly friend) a headache down the road!

Have a good week all!

Kay 

Home

Mom made it home today. She is exhausted. Hopefully after a good nights sleep in her own (new hospital) bed, she will feel better. A long day for her. 

She kept telling me she needed more clothes at rehab, but I never got any laundry sent home, just one small load. Well, it seems that a stack of pillows got set on top of mom's primary bag of clothing I sent over  the first few days she was in rehab and there it sat. Luckily they cleaned out her closet today and sent them home. So I do not have much laundry to do at least. Mystery solved. I'm sure she wondered why I did not send her favorite clothes over, and here they were sitting in the closet over there! LOL Rehab is a different story when you can't go into the room and go through the closet and can only visit through 4 inches of an open window!

Home health care will be coming for a while, which is nice. Hopefully we can get mom settled in for another long spell at home. Fingers crossed! I told Mom you were all thinking of her, thank you. 

Kay

May Days

Since Mom is in quarantine at Park Pointe it was nice to see her in person one night this week. Unfortunately it was at the ER, one of her staples came loose! LOL The home always calls if something is going on, and I didn't need to go, but I did not want to pass up an in-person visit. We enjoyed our visit. Staple is in a spot that sees a lot of action, right around the curve of her belly button. 

I was under the weather a bit this week, ended up taking Friday off, and it helped. I'm feeling better, shook off my bug. I hadn't been over to the home because I was worn out after work, and Joe wasn't sure where to go, but yesterday we made it over there. Mom's bed is right by the window so we can chat there. I saw a smart lady with a chair down a ways. The window only opens a few inches so it is a little awkward if you don't have strong thighs. Having just fat thighs, they objected a bit. LOL  Now that Joe is comfortable knowing where to go he'll be over more often, I'm sure. He already ran over once today, Mom needed some chapstick. He leaves the stuff at the desk, and then goes behind the building to mom's window. You can park right near the room, which is nice. Mom was sitting up in the recliner today.  That is good therapy for her because I couldn't get her in a chair unless John was home for a visit. I think with the loose staple they will take it easier on therapy until those are out. She seems to be coming along slowly, but that is to be expected, she has been going downhill for months. She was complaining about bland food so I sent her beloved salt shaker and seasoned pepper over, I'm sure that will help. 

I don't like the social isolation, but there is nothing to be done about that, darn Covid! Her voice is stronger on the phone, which is a good sign. 

Have a good week all!

Kay